


Freezing Over

by MizushimaHikari



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Dark Victor Nikiforov, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fear, Fights, M/M, Peacekeepers, Psychological Trauma, Quarter Quell, Resistance, Snow, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-15 01:50:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11795940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MizushimaHikari/pseuds/MizushimaHikari
Summary: On the 125th anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the few double agents among our ranks cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, one tribute from each district will be reaped from its existing pool of Peacekeepers. Unfortunately, in small, decrepit District 12, Yuuri Katsuki is the only Peacekeeper.





	Freezing Over

Yuuri Katsuki turned on the television in his room, the only occupied room of the Peacekeepers' Quarters of District 12. The Capitol would soon be announcing the special circumstances surrounding the 125th Hunger Games, the Fifth Quarter Quell to take place since the rebellion. He, like every other citizen of Panem, was required to watch. 

And he, like most citizens, hated the Hunger Games. 

Among his peers back when he was a Peacekeeper-in-training, Yuuri was known as "Glass Heart." He rarely delivered corporal punishment, and when he did, he did so reluctantly instead of gleefully, like the others. 

But duty was duty, so he watched as President Nikiforov appeared on screen, seated in an armchair more luxurious than anything Yuuri had seen. The president looked well - shiny hair, glossy lips, clean fingernails. Indicators of health Yuuri never saw in District 12, where starvation and illness were the norm. 

President Nikiforov opened a crystal-studded box and removed a note card, yellowed with age. After the rebellion over a century ago, the Capitol, in an attempt to prevent future revolutions, created the Hunger Games. In the Games, one boy and one girl between the age of twelve and eighteen were randomly chosen from each district to fight to the death in the arena. When one child remained standing, he or she was crowned victor. 

The Hunger Games were created to ensure the districts would never forget the price of insolence. 

Along with the Games, they created Quarter Quells, Games with special rules that took place every twenty-five years. In the first Quarter Quell, instead of selecting one boy and one girl randomly, the district had a vote to decide which of the eligible children would go. 

Yuuri couldn't imagine if his district voted to send him to the Hunger Games, otherwise known as near-certain death. 

He was lucky to have survived into adulthood. 

President Nikiforov cleared his throat delicately before reading, "On the 125th anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the few double agents among our ranks cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, one tribute from each district will be reaped from its existing pool of Peacekeepers." 

No. NO! 

Yuuri felt like the ground below him had collapsed, sending him into freefall. This couldn't be happening. He blacked out on the floor. 

He came to sprawled on the floor a moment later, just as the president concluded, "May the odds be ever in your favor." 

Yuuri screamed. 

A month later, at the official Reaping Ceremony, where the district's tributes were selected, Yuuri stood at the front, still unable to come to grips with the inevitable. In the glass bowl at front, where there usually were thousands of slips of paper, each bearing the name of one unfortunate child, there was but one slip of paper. Everyone knew whose name was written on it. 

Yuuko Nishigori, the usual emcee for these events, took the stage and pulled out the single slip from the glass contained, looking calmer than Yuuri could remember. He supposed it made sense – this year was a reprieve from the routine of selecting victims from the district’s children. This year, she wouldn’t have to worry about her triplet daughters, nor her daughters’ classmates, nor any children she knew. 

As she read Yuuri’s name from the bit of paper, people in the crowd held up three fingers. Yuuri knew what it meant – a farewell symbol to the dead. 

All too soon, without even a chance to say goodbye, he was shoved onto a bullet train headed towards the Capitol. 

The last time he was on a train – when he was assigned to District 12 – Yuuri had ridden in one of the coach cars. This time, he was taken to a luxurious dining car with a sumptuous feast of delicacies he had last seen in childhood. Crab, shrimp, seafood soup buns: ingredients only available from District 4. Even with his Peacekeeper wages, he could never obtain those ingredients from District 12 markets. There was even squid with its tentacles still squirming. 

Did the people of the Capitol enjoy the suffering of others even in their meals? 

In the middle of the bounty was a District 12 citizen, Minako Okukawa. District 12’s only surviving Hunger Games victor, Minako was a fearsome woman who spent most of her days nursing a bottle of sake. As a former victor, it was her duty to mentor tributes, give them advice that would get them out of the arena alive. 

No one had come back alive under her tutelage. 

Not that anyone could place the blame squarely on her shoulders. District 12, the smallest, poorest district of Panem, naturally had some of the smallest, weakest tributes. The odds simply weren’t in their favor. 

Then again, it didn’t help how absurdly drunk she was right now, half-asleep at the table, sixteen half-full bottles of sake around her. 

Yuuri shook her awake as gently as he could. “Minako!” 

She opened her bloodshot eyes, and then Yuuri realized the tablecloth was stained with tears. “Minako, are you okay?” 

Angrily, she replied, “I will be fine. Whether District 12 will be with a different Peacekeeper… that’s another matter altogether.” 

In one gulp, she finished one bottle of sake and then declared, “I wouldn’t say this to a Peacekeeper like the one we had before you, but you better come back. Some people are going to starve without your charity.” 

How did she know about that he secretly helped out Seam families?! 

She laughed. “Don’t look so confused, boy. It’s the only thing that makes sense. No one else besides you or me has any extra to give around, and it’s obvious that some families have more food than they can afford.” 

Yuuri felt tears stream down his face, his vision blurry. Reality was hitting him again. “People are going to starve to death once I enter the arena…” 

A hand struck his cheek, nearly knocking him over. “Don’t you dare cry, Yuuri Katsuki,” Minako said treacherously. “Most of our tributes are Seam kids who’ve never eaten a proper meal in their lives, and they don’t cry. You’re a Peacekeeper with military training.” 

Wiping away his tears, he whispered hopelessly, “What am I supposed to do?” 

She flicked on the television and answered, “You study the competition and figure out how to survive.”

Sure enough, on the screen were recaps of all of the districts’ Reaping Ceremonies. To Yuuri’s horror, the Peacekeepers from Districts 1, 2, and 4 looked incredibly bloodthirsty. Most memorable of them was Yuri Plisetsky of District 1, a prodigy Peacekeeper known as “Ice Tiger” since rumors said he hid knives in his shoes. Even worse was when he watched District 3’s Reaping and found out that his close friend from training, Phichit Chulanont, was also going to the Games. District 11 boasted an extremely burly tribute, Otabek Altin. 

They all looked ready to kill. 

Yuuri huddled into a ball on the floor, his anxiety skyrocketing. Minako raised an eyebrow inscrutably. Slowly, she half-grinned, half-grimaced. 

“Katsuki. I know what you can do.” 

“There’s nothing! Half of them could kill me in a heartbeat!” 

“They could. You just have to slip under the radar, act like you’re small fry. Your Reaping was already forgettable. Pretend you don’t matter and they’ll fight among themselves first.” 

“And then what?” 

“Beats me,” she said, returning to her booze. 

Yuuri stared off into space. Minako was right – he would have a hard time holding his own against the other tributes. It would be best to lay low until there were only a few left and then… and then…

Kill or be killed.


End file.
